


you got a look in your eyes

by elenamichaels



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Not Hockey Player(s), Jonny is a hockey player, M/M, Patrick is not a hockey player
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 18:29:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7585336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elenamichaels/pseuds/elenamichaels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Patrick is totally going to add “made a ballet fan out of professional hockey star Jonathan Toews” to his resume, even if he probably didn’t manage it all on his own.</p><p>(Patrick is a ballerino. Jonny bought his mom tickets to <em>The Nutcracker</em>, not planning on her dragging him along with her, and he definitely didn't plan for having to go back again and again until he found a way to meet the guy who was flirting with him from offstage.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	you got a look in your eyes

**Author's Note:**

> A big thank you to svmadelyn and everyone involved in the 1988 Fic Challenge, without which this thing would definitely still be sitting unfinished in my gdocs because I needed some competition to help motivate me here. Also thank you to crosschecks for the quick beta!! 
> 
> Multiple current and former Hawks players are featured, and it can be assumed that this takes place during the 14-15 season because I just couldn't let go of Sharpy, Saader, or Shawzy.
> 
> Title is taken from Avalanche by Walk The Moon.

When Patrick was a kid, he saw himself becoming one of the stars of a professional hockey team, not a ballet company, but things change. He’s not someone who feels like he gave up on his dream or whatever, he just found a new one. Hockey is always going to be a part of his life, anyway. He’s still a fanl, and he tries to keep up with the NHL as closely as he can, catching games when he has time. Moving to Chicago hadn’t exactly shifted his loyalties, though, so he rarely goes to see games in person, mostly sticking to the tradition of going to Sabres games with his dad when he’s back home. It isn’t necessarily that he doesn’t want to either, but ballet demands a lot of time from him, and he loves it.

One of the things he loves the most, is the energy he always feels right before a performance is about to begin. Sometimes he’s just buzzing with it. He can settle himself while he’s doing his stretches and warming up a bit, but after that the best thing to do with himself seems to be standing in his spot in the wings off to the side of the stage and scoping out the crowd a bit. It’s become a routine thing for him, spending his last couple of minutes with his eyes wandering over the crowd, listening to the quiet chatter before it dies down. There are often a couple of other dancers around him, and they usually find things to point out to each other, especially around this time of year when they’re putting on one of their most popular shows, _The Nutcracker_. But tonight he’s the only standing there at the moment, which is probably part of the reason why his eyes initially linger on the man who’s sitting a few rows back right near the center, staring intently down at his phone. Another reason being that he looks familiar but Patrick can’t quite place why, until he actually looks up, and there’s a moment of realization. This dude sitting there already looking bored to death is none other than the captain of the Chicago Blackhawks, Jonathan Toews. Patrick chuckles to himself at the idea of an NHL player about to watch him perform, and that it’s a guy like _this_ , who looks like he’s being forced to attend the ballet against his will.

Patrick doesn’t really follow the guy too closely, but it’s hard not to have heard about his Captain Serious persona, and right now it looks like a pretty fitting image. Or it does, until the woman beside him, Patrick presumes that she’s his mother, nudges him and directs his attention to something in the program she’s holding. He laughs and makes his own comment in return, and then his eyes drift back down to his phone, but the hint of a smile remains. Patrick hears the call for the dancers to get to their places and he turns away from Jonathan Toews, moving further back behind the stage.

 _The Nutcracker_ is a show all too familiar to many dancers, Patrick’s spent the weeks leading up to almost every Christmas since he was six preparing for a variety of different roles in it. The Joffrey puts on a run of _The Nutcracker_ every December, and he’s been a part of all of them since making the move to Chicago three years ago. Though with his new promotion to a Soloist, he’s performing the role of Fritz, which in the Joffrey’s version has him performing a solo as the Snow Prince. The dance is an exciting number with a lot of movement, allowing Patrick to move all across the stage, executing quick turns and whipping jetes and saut de basques. There’s always a bit of nervous anticipation inside him as he prepares to go out there, but he’s always been good at being able to block everything else out when he needs to.

It’s part of the reason why he thinks he could have made it as a hockey player, because he could block out the things people said about his size, make up for it with his skill. The critiques are different as a ballerino, but they’re all the same, with the success just as rare and hard to come by. With ballet there isn’t anything like a goal horn to let you know you’ve just done what you were supposed to, or a final buzzer that can declare you a winner or loser, but Patrick can still feel when he’s done a good job without any outside affirmation. He can always tell when his body is moving exactly how it’s supposed to, and the clapping is just as satisfying for him as all the cheering of thousands of fans ever could be.

When he’s waiting in the wings after he’s just left the stage, his eyes find Jonathan Toews again, who happens to be looking right back at him this time. Patrick smiles as an immediate reaction, and he catches a hint of a smile on Toews’ face too, before his eyes dart away and his attention returns to the stage just as quickly as it had all happened.

About a week passes before it happens again, but there’s Jonathan Toews sitting in the audience. He looks like he’s on his own this time, and way less reluctant to be there, if maybe still a little unsure. Patrick is totally going to add “made a ballet fan out of professional hockey star Jonathan Toews” to his resume, even if he probably didn’t manage it all on his own. He’s on his phone again, but he doesn’t look so pained about it all this time, so Patrick is calling that progress. Patrick watches him slip the phone into his pocket after another moment as some of the other dancers start to fill in around him, and his attention is quickly pulled elsewhere.

When Patrick meets Jonathan’s eyes while he’s waiting in the wings that night, he waggles his eyebrows at him with a grin. It’s a move that his friends, and sisters most of all, for many years, have begged him to stop using. But it looks like Toews laughs a little, which is usually the goal anyway. Except for when he’s trying to be sexy, which he can totally pull off, thank you very much. He’s had a lifetime of seeing himself stretch in front of rows of mirrors, he knows what he looks like. And now Jonathan Toews has seen his ass in action, and it seems like there’s a chance he might be a little into it. He looks at Patrick for a little bit longer this time at least, before he turns his head and rolls his eyes anyway.

Over the next couple of weeks, Patrick continues to see Jonathan Toews every once in a while. When he shows up is always pretty sporadic, which of course, because Patrick knows how hectic hockey schedules can be. 

The third time he saw him there, and became more convinced that he actually might be there to see him, he decided to tell his sisters about Toews. But to them, he didn’t have an actual name, because Patrick decided against telling them that the dude he was occasionally flirting with from offstage was a professional hockey player. He knew their reactions to that would probably be mixed, and for all he knew he might never actually see the dude again after any given night beyond his TV screen, so he could just pretend like he had no idea who he was.

 

“He was there again tonight,” Patrick says over his shoulder to his three sisters, all watching him from his laptop screen as he searches through his pantry. He’s glad that they can’t really see his face, because he knows that he’s smiling just mentioning Toews, and he feels way too old to be teased about a crush by his little sisters.

“Really? What is that like the third time?” Erica asks.

“Yeah,” he nods, and grabs a bag of pretzels before returning to sit at his kitchen counter.

“And he just made eyes at you the whole time again?” Jess waggles her eyebrows in a poor imitation of his own signature, earning laughs from Erica and Jackie.

Patrick rolls his eyes, but he can’t help but laugh along with them. “When I was looking at him, yeah.”

“Aren’t you kind of afraid that he’s like some kind of stalker?” Jackie cuts in, concern coming through more than the level of sarcasm she might have been going for.

“He’s not a stalker,” Patrick answers quickly. It’s not like he can say that for sure, but he feels pretty confident in thinking that’s not something he would have to worry about coming from Jonathan Toews.

“You really don’t know that,” Jackie is quick to respond, and he feels like the silence from the other two is pretty telling of their own feelings.

He wants to reassure them, but he really doesn’t know how to do that other than revealing Toews’ identity to them, and that’s not something he wants to do just yet. If they actually meet at some point, then yeah he’ll probably give and tell them, but until then he’ll settle for a not at all subtle subject change.

“Anway, Jacks, how’s that research paper coming along?” He shoves a couple pretzels in his mouth, willing their attention to shift away from him and his weird thing with Jonathan Toews.

“Promise to be careful before I start ranting?” Jackie’s eyes are focused on him on the screen.

Patrick holds her gaze and offers up a smile before saying, “promise”.

Thankfully, Jackie is satisfied enough with his answer to go on a tangent about the pains of being in college and Patrick is content to just sit there and let the sound of his sisters’ laughter wash over him.

 

The first time he looks out into the audience and finds Toews sitting there, a girl by his side who is definitely not his mother, he hates the way his stomach sinks a little. It’s not exactly like he thought the guy was coming back just for him, and this was the beginning of his epic gay love story or something, but he thought there was...well, he doesn’t really know what he thought they were doing other than maybe flirting a little from a distance.

He decides that he’s just going to turn and look away, forget Jonathan Toews is even there that night, but he lingers long enough to see another guy come down the aisle and take the seat on the other side of the pretty blonde who was making Toews laugh. Both of their attention turns to the new addition, who is honestly kind of ridiculously attractive too, as he says something before leaning in to kiss the girl on the cheek. It doesn’t take Patrick long to realize that the gorgeous man is one of Toews’ teammates, Patrick Sharp. Living in Chicago, it’s also hard not to be aware of the guy who’s been touted as one of the city’s Most Beautiful.

Sharp’s attractiveness aside, that means the woman sitting between them is totally his wife, and Jonathan didn’t actually bring a date to the show. He’s reminding himself about how that still shouldn’t matter when Jonathan seems to have noticed him. They’re looking right at each other, and he smiles, and Patrick is smiling right back.

He doesn’t manage to ignore Jonathan Toews that night.

 

And it apparently doesn’t go unnoticed by the rest of his company. 

His friend, Nina, approaches him the next night as they’re waiting for the performance to begin. Based on the knowing look on her face, Patrick is sure this isn’t the first time she’s found him looking at Toews, it’s only surprising that she hasn’t already said something given that they’ve been spending about ninety percent of their time together during this run of _The Nutcracker_ with him playing her brother. “Looking for someone?”

Patrick flushes, knowing he’s been caught, and that the situation he’s in is probably going to come off as a really stupid one. “No, not really.”

“Pat, come on. You can’t make literal heart eyes at a dude this often and expect none of us notice.” She rests an arm on his shoulder and leans forward to peer out for herself. “He’s not here tonight, is he?”

“No,” He answers with a shake of his head before turning away from the audience entirely.

“Have you talked to him?” Nina asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Uh, no. It’s not really like I can just get in contact with him, and he hasn’t reached out to me or anything, so,” he responds with a shrug. “I don’t know if it’s even like that for him.”

She’s quiet for a moment, like she’s considering something before she comes out with, “he’s a hockey player, right?”

“Yeah,” Patrick admits, wondering how many of them actually know that. No one in the company is as big of a hockey fan as he is, as far as he knows, but most of them are at least aware of the Blackhawks he’s pretty sure. It’s hard not to be, living in Chicago. He knows Nina’s hockey knowledge is fairly limited, but she did date a player who went on to go pro while she was in college for a while.

She disappears for a moment to retrieve her phone. “Show me which one,” she says, holding her phone out to him. 

He takes it after a moment of hesitation, and goes to type in Jonathan Toews. They spend their last few free minutes going through pictures of him, and draw a couple of other equally curious people over during the process. Patrick thinks it’s all pretty harmless, because it’s not like he _actually_ has a thing with the guy.

The general consensus seems to be that he’s pretty hot, and Patrick credits himself for doing a good job of finding his most flattering pictures, avoiding the many on ice shots where he often looks some degree of murderous or terrified. But then it’s time to get things going and he’s able to forget about annoyingly attractive hockey players for the rest of the night.

 

They’ve just finished up the last performance of their run of _The Nutcracker_ at the Joffrey, and a lot of the dancers usually go out to celebrate a little when they wrap a successful run before they prepare for what’s next. Though the group is smaller than usual because Christmas was only a couple of days ago, so some are going home to their families instead. Patrick is leaving tomorrow to have a late Christmas celebration with his family back in Buffalo, but his flight doesn’t leave until tomorrow morning so he figured why not?

Their group heads to a section near the back after they enter one of the usual clubs, though they’ll likely be dispersed all over the place soon enough. One of the things Patrick does first is head to the bar to bring some drinks to the table. He’s been weaving his way through throngs of people the entire time he’s been there, barely paying attention to anyone he passes, but that all changes when he nears the bar and his eyes land on all too familiar face. 

There’s Jonathan Toews, leaning against the bar, and Patrick is so surprised that he’s probably lucky Jonathan doesn’t have time to get a drink in his hand and walk away before Patrick can even move.

He opts for not standing there like an idiot all night and manages to shake himself out of it, deciding to approach him before he can consider some of the appeal of turning around and just going back in the other direction.

“Too busy to come see some ballet tonight?” Patrick asks when he’s reached Jonathan’s side.

Toews turns to look at him, and well, he definitely had the element of surprise going for him here. “Shit,” Toews says, wide-eyed, and they both laugh. “Sorry, I just,” He looks like he’s struggling to find the right words, finishing with, “it’s you”.

“Yeah.” Patrick might be struggling with words a little bit too here, but he’s just glad to know that Toews noticing him the way he did wasn’t just in Patrick’s head as much as he sometimes thought, and worried, it might be. “I’m Patrick,” he offers a hand out with his name, and Toews looks down at it with a smile before taking it.

“Jonathan. Jonny.”

“Jonny,” Patrick tries the nickname out, knowing immediately that he prefers it. “Hi.”

“Hey.” Jonny is still smiling, and Patrick is too, and they both probably look like idiots but he’s suddenly happier than he ever thought he could be about being in this club tonight. “Uh, can I buy you a drink? Since I had to miss your show and all.”

“Yeah, go for it. How could I turn down a drink from our city’s very own Captain?” Patrick grins, deciding that was an excellent way to let Jonny know that he knows exactly who he is, if he says so himself.

Jonny nods, looking pleased by this. “I thought you probably knew.”

“Yeah, dude, I do live in this city. And I’m a hockey fan, so,” he says with a wave of his hand.

He notices Jonny’s eyes light up a little at that like he just can’t help it, and Patrick’s thinking he’s maybe already a little fucked when it comes to how into Jonathan Toews he is. “Cool.”

And how much that lameass response deserves Patrick raining on his parade a little here. “But I’m from Buffalo, so that’s where the loyalties lie.” 

The way Jonny’s face shifts is fantastic, and yep, totally fucked here.

“Okay,” he nods, looking at him very seriously now. “We’ll see about that.”

Patrick can’t help but laugh. “What, you think you’re going to be able to convert me?”

Jonny just smiles again. “Totally.”

Patrick shakes his head, but he’s smiling too. “Okay, we’ll start with that drink, then.”

After Jonny orders a drink for Patrick their conversation divulges into what’s more of an argument about hockey, and from Jonny’s side mostly why the Blackhawks are the best and how this is could be their year. Patrick isn’t so sure about their chances, and he tells Jonny so.

They’ve moved off to the side of the bar, and Patrick doesn’t know how long they’ve been standing there talking before they’re interrupted by a guy clapping Jonny on the shoulder and getting up in his space. “Tazer, cheating on your ballet boyfriend so soon?”

“ _No_ , this is my—” Patrick watches Jonny stop and sigh, much to the amusement of the guy who had just approached them. Patrick is reasonably sure he’s one of the Hawks’ defenseman, Brent Seabrook. He’s still not fully a Blackhawks fan by association yet. “This is Patrick. He dances for the Joffrey Ballet company.”

“So he _is_ your ballet boyfriend?” Patrick wants to laugh at the pained face Jonny makes, and he does. “Ease up, Jonathan, it’s a joke.” Then his attention is directed toward Patrick. “Nice to meet you, we’ve heard a lot.” There’s a pointed smile in Jonny’s direction at that. “I’m Brent.”

“Yeah, he wishes.” Patrick grins at Jonny, who only rolls his eyes in return. 

“Patrick.” An unmistakably mischievous look passes over Brent’s face. “I think there’s another Patrick who would love to meet you,” he says with a glance back over his shoulder.

“Don’t.” The warning look Jonny gives him is kind of impressively intense.

“Fine,” he relents. “I’ll pretend I never saw you, Cap. But if you want to avoid seeing anyone else from the team you might want to move away from the bar.”

“Yeah, yeah, just get your drink and get outta here.” Jonny gives him a little shove and Brent retaliates before he begins to retreat. 

“Nice meeting you, Patrick. Good luck with that one.” Patrick raises his beer in response and Jonny looks pretty done with both of them.

“Sorry, about that.” Jonny looks like he really means it, but having spent a good part of his early life around hockey players, Patrick knows it could have been a lot worse.

“It’s cool. Do you have to actually convert me into a fan before you can introduce me to the team?” Patrick smiles around the head of his beer when Jonny laughs.

“Yeah, it’s a whole process, there’s a quiz at the end.” His face goes serious before he smiles again. “Really, they can just be a lot sometimes. I didn’t want to subject you to all that yet. Even if you are a Sabres fan.”

“Fuckin’ right,” he declares proudly, paired with what he’s sure is his most obnoxious grin.

Patrick has been starting to wonder about the odds of Jonny being less than charmed with him by the time this night is over, as he’s come to realize that people tend to find him more appealing when he’s dancing gracefully up on stage than when they have an actual conversation with him. And Jonny is looking at him like he’s ridiculous right now, but he’s staying put so that’s something.

“You have any moves?” Patrick tilts his head toward the dance floor.

Jonny shakes his head hard and fast the moment he realizes what Patrick means. “God, no. Not compared to you.” He flushes a little after he gives the compliment, and it just makes Patrick smile even wider.

“What got your attention?” Patrick asks after a moment, genuinely curious.

Jonny watches him, seemingly trying to determine if that’s actually the case or if he’s messing with him or something. “Seriously?”

Patrick nods, not looking away. “Yeah, I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”

“Yours?” Jonny looks less than impressed by this deal. “You recognized me, I don’t think that’s the same thing.”

If Patrick was someone else he maybe would have let it go at that and just kept trying to coax Jonny’s answer out of him, but no, he couldn’t carry on without letting this dude know that him looking like a douche was actually what first caught his attention. “Actually, I didn’t at first. At first I just saw a dude who looked like he was secretly being held at gunpoint and forced to watch this ballet.”

“Oh.” The edges of his mouth turn down a little. “Sorry, about that, I just didn’t—”

“Dude, it’s cool,” Patrick cuts him off. “Ballet totally isn’t everyone’s thing. Just like hockey.” He gestures to Jonny for emphasis. “But you came back, for some reason that had something to do with my totally awesome moves that you were just about to tell me all about.”

Jonny looks incredibly put upon, but Pat waggles his eyebrows at him when he doesn’t answer right away, and he sighs and seems prepared to give in and deal with it. “It was just watching the way you move, really.” He ducks his head, face maybe getting a little more red. “I mean, the athleticism of all of the dancers was impressive, but you, uh, you were beautiful. To watch.” 

Patrick doesn’t know what to say, because wow, Jonathan Toews just said that about him and he looked like he really meant it. 

But Jonny still isn’t looking at him, and Patrick wants him to, so he has to say something to try and change that. “That’s one hell of a review.”

It has the desired effect, because Jonny is laughing, and their eyes meet and it’s like Patrick feels something spark through his whole body.

 

Patrick’s another beer in, and he hasn’t been able to get Jonny out on the dance floor yet, but he’s considering it a work in progress. He’s about to make another proposal of some sort when he looks over at Jonny and finds him already looking back. His mouth twitches, and Patrick thinks he might be about to say something, so he raises an eyebrow in an attempt at a _go ahead_ gesture.

Jonny spares a glance back in the direction his teammate had disappeared to earlier before fixing his eyes on Patrick. “So can I, uh, get your number?”

Patrick worries his bottom lip between his teeth, pretending to consider this. It’s totally not something he would even have to stop and think about before saying yes, but he couldn’t resist the urge to mess with Jonny a little first.

“Or not, if you, yeah,” Jonny’s quick to add quietly, and Patrick can only deal with the way his face changes for about a second before he gives.

“Yeah, ‘course. I was just trying to make you work for it.” Patrick grins.

“Dick.” Jonny gives his shoulder an easy shove, but his mouth is quirking up at the edges a bit now.

Patrick raises his eyebrows suggestively at the comment, and Jonny just groans, “Oh my god.”

“Yeah, baby.” Patrick’s smile is totally sleazy now, but he’s pulling his phone out to exchange numbers with Jonny before he might have a chance to change his mind.

Jonny is obviously supposed to be here with his teammates, but he’s been spending the whole night with Patrick, even though they’ve exchanged numbers and he could be on his way with the knowledge that he can contact Patrick whenever he wants to. But he hasn’t even suggested that he should go back to his team at some point even once, and Patrick really wants to kiss him. 

He can’t though, because they’re in a bar and cellphones are a thing, and that’s a big part of why he’s hoping Jonny will say yes to leaving with him and they can get out of there.

“So you have a game tomorrow?” Patrick asks with a raise of his eyebrows.

“No,” Jonny says with a shake of his head. “Not for another two days.”

“Are you just a ‘not on the first date’ kind of guy then?” At this point, Patrick thinks he wouldn’t be too surprised by that. “Because I think you could argue that we’ve had plenty, under a pretty loose definition of the term, if it’d make you feel better.” As much he would totally be okay with respecting Jonny’s possible ideal of wanting to make things romantic or whatever, they both have hectic schedules and he never likes missing out on opportunities.

“What?” Jonny’s eyes go hilariously wide for a second like he hadn’t been prepared for that at all.

Patrick laughs, and Jonny quickly brings his face back into check. “I’m sorry, did I just scandalize you?”

“Oh, fuck off.” 

Patrick raises an eyebrow expectantly and Jonny laughs, easing up a little. “It’s cool, if you don’t. I just thought I’d make the most of a perfect opportunity.”

Jonny’s eyes dart across his face, but he doesn’t look surprised anymore. “No, yeah, I could go.”

“Yeah?” Patrick asks with a hopeful smile.

Jonny nods, and then they’re going their separate ways with a place to meet back up outside in a few minutes. Patrick doesn’t worry about his own friends, because he knows they’re probably not worried about him. If he disappears while they’re out but is heard from at some point the next morning, it’s never a big deal. Until he sees them again and gets to brag about what happened the night before on occasion, of course.

When he feels a hand on his back and turns to see Jonny there beside him, he thinks that this night could definitely be something to brag about, but maybe one he’d rather keep to himself for once.

In the car on the way over they decide on going to Jonny’s place, because it’s apparently a little closer, and Patrick is also kind of curious about what it actually looks like. And he knows that he has to be up early in the morning, and it would probably be a lot harder to make himself leave his bed at such an unreasonable hour with a hot hockey player laying in it.

 

He follows Jonny up to his apartment once they’re dropped off in front of his building, resisting the urge to get his hands on him before they’re actually inside his place because _god_ he’s thought about this a lot. He tried not to, the first time thoughts of Jonny started to creep into his head when he got his hand around his dick, but he couldn’t help but start getting off to images that were hopefully very similar to what was about to actually happen here.

He’s on Jonny the moment the door shuts behind them, bringing his arm up around his neck to pull him down for a kiss. He might have worried about getting on him so fast if it weren’t for the looks Jonny kept giving him on the way there. The tight grip he currently has on Patrick’s hips and the way he deepens the kiss urge Patrick to keep going.

As Jonny’s tongue slips inside his mouth, Patrick considers dropping to his knees right there in front of the door, but he breaks the kiss instead, nipping at Jonny’s lower lip before he pulls away completely. “Bedroom?”

“Yeah,” Jonny nods quickly, using his grip on Pat’s hips to guide him toward his room.

They keep going until the back of Patrick’s legs meet the bed, having lost their shirts and shoes along the way. Patrick trails his hands down Jonny’s bare chest, smiling at his intake of breath as his fingers ghost over his abs, continuing down until he reaches the top of his jeans. He pops the button and pulls the zipper down, but he turns them around so that Jonny’s the one in front of the bed before he starts to pull his pants off. He tugs them down past Jonny’s thigh and then gives him a gentle push back to sit down on the bed, letting him take them off himself while he works to get his own pants off.

Patrick returns to Jonny with both of them in their boxers, nudging Jonny’s legs open further until he can fit between them. He leans back in to kiss him again, once on the month before moving his lips along Jonny’s jaw instead. The hand Jonny’s placed around his hip again tightens as Patrick moves his nose up the shell of Jonny’s ear. “Move up the bed,” he whispers, urging Jonny along with a hand on his chest.

Patrick follows Jonny up the bed, snagging the pillow beside his head to place under his back, then taking advantage of his current position to pull Jonny’s boxers down. With his underwear out of the way, Patrick still takes his time making his way to Jonny’s dick, kissing and sucking his way up his thighs and enjoying the way Jonny starts to squirm.

The hand he’s buried in Patrick’s hair tightens in anticipation when Patrick’s mouth is finally hovering just over the head of his dick. He groans and lets out a quiet, “Fuck,” when Patrick pulls back his foreskin to slide his tongue over the slit. Patrick teases him with little licks around the head, working his hand near the base, before he suddenly takes him in his mouth. Jonny curses again and his fingers tug at Patrick’s hair, but his hand stills soon after. “That okay?” He questions.

Patrick’s eyes drift up to meet his and he pulls off enough to give a quick nod before working to take Jonny down further. It doesn’t take Jonny long to resume his tugs at Patrick’s curls.

Patrick will be the first to admit that his schedule doesn’t always make it easy to meet people, so it’s been a little while since he’s done this, but from the little noises Jonny is making and the way he’s looking at Patrick every time he manages a glance up, he thinks he’s doing okay.

“Gonna— _fuck_ ,” Jonny gets out with a warning pull against Patrick’s head before he’s about to come.

Patrick eases off Jonny’s dick, allowing the first few spurts to catch against his lips before catching the rest with his hand. He hastily tugs his own boxers down enough to get his dick out and straddle Jonny’s hips, grinding down once against Jonny’s stomach before his come is spread over his dick as he gives it a few quick tugs, the knowledge that it’s Jonny’s come and the way his hands are moving slowly up and down his thighs already pulling him right to the edge.

Jonny’s loose beneath him, watching him through half-lidded eyes before he comes back down enough to move Patrick’s hand away and replace it with his own.

“ _Fuck, Pat, your mouth_ ,” Jonny says, looking almost awed, as his other hand comes up and he thumbs at Patrick’s bottom lip. He pushes the rest of the way up to get his mouth on him, licking into Patrick’s in what has to be the dirtiest fucking kiss he has ever been a part of.

“Come on,” Jonny sighs out with his forehead resting against Pat’s, hand still closed in a tight first working over his dick. “Come for me.”

“ _Fuck_ ,” Patrick cries out, dropping his head down to Jonny’s shoulder. He murmurs his name into the expanse of his neck as he comes.

 

Jonny lets him linger there for a while, trailing a hand up and down his back and mouthing at the space between his shoulder and his neck, but Patrick’s starting to feel it in his legs and the mess between them is starting to dry, so he goes easily when Jonny eases him off to the side.

Jonny grabs a box of tissues from the bedside table and pulls a few out before passing the box over to Patrick. When Jonny has himself mostly cleaned up he balls the tissues up and walks them over to a small trashcan in the corner. Patrick looks between the trashcan and his own ball of tissues, considering whether or not he can make the shot.

Jonny’s on to him before he even his a chance to try. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

“I totally would’ve made it,” Patrick pouts, but Jonny is still staring him down in warning so he gets up from the bed and walks them over instead.

While he’s up he retrieves his boxers from the foot of the bed to pull them back on. Jonny is back in the bed when Patrick turns around, leaning back against the pillows. Looking at him like that has Patrick wanting to get right back in there with him, but he knows that he shouldn’t, so he continues gathering his stuff.

“You’re gonna go?” Jonny sits up straighter in the bed while Patrick looks around for his pants, finding them piled with Jonny’s on the floor. It’s enough to make him think leaving now might actually be a totally unnecessary thing, especially paired with the longing look Jonny is giving him when he turns back around to face him. He even looks a little disappointed, like he might actually ask him to stay. If he did, Patrick’s not sure that he would be able to make anything close to a no any part of the answer that came out of his mouth.

Probably for the best, Jonny doesn’t actually ask. “Yeah, I have to be up early tomorrow. Like too early to actually function. And I’m supposed to be picking up my friend, Nina, she’s the one who played Clara,” Patrick explains as he pulls his clothes on. “And I still haven’t packed,” he adds with a sigh, mentally cursing himself. If he had already packed, he might have been able to get away with spending the night and grabbing his stuff in the morning.

Jonny’s been watching him from the same position in his bed. “Oh.”

“But I have your number, and you’re gonna be around this weekend right?”

Jonny smiles. “You know the schedule?”

Patrick wishes he was the one with pillows nearby to throw at his stupid, smug, still ridiculously attractive face. “Shut up, you weren’t just happening to drop by the theatre on nights I was performing.”

Jonny relaxes back against the bed further, still smiling. “Yeah, fair enough.”

Now fully dressed, Patrick shoves his phone down in his pocket and considers his options. Because though someone far stronger than him would probably fail at leaving behind naked Jonathan Toews for a second time in one night, he really wants to kiss him again before he goes.

So he does.

He rests one knee up on the bed and leans forward to kiss Jonny again. “I wish I would’ve packed already,” he groans, dropping his head down to Jonny’s bare shoulder.

Jonny laughs. “Can I see you again, when we’re both back?”

“Yes.” Patrick places a kiss against his skin before he straightens back up. “Maybe we’ll even plan something this time.”

“That’d be nice.” Jonny’s smile is soft and warm and it takes every bit of self-control that Patrick has to get himself out the door before he can crawl right back in bed with him.

 

He catches a cab back over to his place, and gets a call from one of his sisters right as he’s walking in the door. “Hey Erica,” he answers as he nudges the door closed and locks it, phone tucked against his head and shoulder. “What’s up?” He tosses his keys down on the counter and safely maneuvers his phone back into his other hand.

“Are you just coming in? I thought you were complaining about having to be up so early for your flight tomorrow.”

“Did you call me thinking I was going to be asleep?”

“Well no, I _know_ you, Pat.” He plops down on the couch, can’t argue with that one. “And you were tweeting, so, it wasn’t hard to figure that one out.”

“Oh, right.” He hasn’t really stopped thinking about Jonny since he left, and he wants to tell his sister, but he doesn’t know how to even explain it. His sisters know about the guy from the ballet, but they don’t know who he actually is. And Patrick doesn’t know if he’s ready to put that out there yet, especially when all they’ve done up to this point is talk for a while and hook up. That might have been the end of it all and Jonny might not actually want anything else from him, he doesn’t know yet, but there’s a part of him that already knows he probably wants a little more than that and he’s hoping Jonny does too. That’s not something he’s ready to commit to out loud yet though.

“Why are you being so quiet?” Erica questions him when he doesn’t say anything else.

Patrick knows he has two options here. He can either tell her what happened to some degree, and maybe decide whether or not he’s going to reveal Jonny’s identity as he goes, or he can just blame it on being tired and call it a night.

“I hooked up with the guy who’s been coming to my shows,” He says, deciding on going with some level of honesty.

“What, really? I hope you finally got his name.”

He rolls his eyes. “Yes, I know his name. It’s Jonny.”

“Is this going to be an actual thing now?”

Okay, he might have to be a little more honest. “I don’t know. I kind of hope so?”

“Good for you, Pat.” She sounds genuinely happy for him, and she probably is. His sisters have developed a habit of trying to get him in relationships, apparently worrying that he’ll end up alone if left to his own devices. They might not be too far off. “Are we at the point where you’ll tell me all about him?”

“Not yet,” he decides.

 

A week goes by before their schedules actually line up so that they can see each other again. Jonny has a game that night, and he’s still set on turning Patrick into more of a Hawks fan, so he sends Patrick the details to pick his ticket up at will-call with plans for them to meet up afterward.

While he was home for a couple days with his family, he fought off way too many questions from his sisters about Jonny, but he basically told them everything he knew so far, aside from the professional hockey player thing, with a promise to fill them in more after they’ve had an actual date. He tried not to think about Jonny too much while he was gone, mostly because now that they had actually met he was kind of afraid the whole thing might just fizzle out and that would be that, and also partly because he watched the Hawks shut out the Sabres 4-0 with his dad, so he couldn’t help but text Jonny and give him some crap for it. That led to a steady stream of trash talking which left Patrick with two realizations, the first being that Jonathan Toews is actually a huge dork, and the second was that Patrick knew he could seriously like this dude.

That second part scared him a little, but he still found himself at the United Center on Thursday night, sitting a couple rows back from center ice in one of the best seats he’d had in a long time. 

The game goes by a little faster than he’d like. The Hawks are really fun to watch this year, and they’re playing Kings, who just always suck, so it’s easy to root for them and get caught up in enjoying the game. He’s almost able to forget that he’s supposed to be meeting the Captain after this until they’re down to the last minute of the game and the seconds are just ticking away and Jonny gets the empty netter. Patrick’s on his feet with everyone else, cheering loudly. 

 

Patrick tries to hold back the grin on his face when he sees Jonny rounding the corner, dressed in his suit, but he really can’t help it. Though it does help that Jonny is grinning right back at him. He’s suddenly even happier that they won, because while he thinks that Jonny could have put a loss behind him enough for their date or whatever, it’s so much better seeing him all happy and open like this.

“Good game,” he greets him with a light jab at his shoulder.

“Thanks,” Jonny responds with a smile. “You ready to get out of here?”

“Sure.”

 

By the time they reach Jonny’s car, Patrick’s decided on a change of plans for the night.

“We don’t have to go out,” he says once they’re both inside.

Jonny’s expression shifts into a frown as he turns to look over at Patrick. “What do you mean?”

“I mean we could just go back to yours or mine and hang out there, instead of going out tonight and just sitting in front of each other at a restaurant, worrying about who might see what.”

Jonny looks relieved. “My place okay? I wouldn’t mind getting out of this suit.”

“I wouldn’t mind that either,” Patrick waggles his eyebrows, just as he’s done to Jonny multiple times already from offstage. He has proof for his sisters that it works on someone now, at least.

“Oh my god,” Jonny huffs out a laugh. “I totally walked into that one.”

“You really did,” Patrick grins.

 

He finds himself waiting on Jonathan Toews’ couch, for Jonny himself as he changes and for the food they ordered to get there. It’s a little surreal, looking around and seeing little pieces of Jonny’s life, a life that he already knows he wouldn’t mind being a part of. 

Patrick can feel his cheeks heating up when Jonny emerges from his room while that thought is still running through his mind. He ducks his head a little, hoping that Jonny won’t notice, and if he does then he doesn’t comment on it.

“Food should be here soon. What do you want to watch?” Jonny settles behind the couch, hands braced on either side of Patrick’s head.

“I don’t know, Toews,” Patrick tilts his head back so he can look up at him. “What does your Netflix list look like?”

Jonny shrugs. “You can take your pick?” He comes around the couch to pull Netflix up before passing the remote over to Patrick. Though he’s barely started scrolling through when Jonny stops him and says, “I did just start that show, Narcos. We could go back and watch the first episode if you want.”

“Ooh, a series. You think you’re ready for that kind of commitment with me?” Patrick peers over at him, raising an eyebrow.

Jonny smirks. “I think we can handle it.”

 

There’s a part of Patrick that wants to just forget all about the show and start something by climbing over onto Jonny’s lap, because who knows when his next chance might be, but Jonny is a solid warmth pressed all along him and in that moment it feels nice just having him there.

Patrick doesn’t know how late it actually is, but he can feel himself relaxing more and more against Jonny, dropping his head down against his shoulder.

He feels Jonny’s hand settle against his thigh just before he asks in a near whisper, “Hey, it’s kind of late, do you want to just stay over?”

Patrick simply nods his agreement against Jonny’s shoulder, not making any move to actually get up. Jonny’s hand slides a little further up his thigh, settling there for a moment, before he starts pushing Patrick up with him. “Come on, I’m not carrying you to my bedroom.”

Patrick grumbles when Jonny moves from his side, leaving him to slouch down against the couch, but he takes the hand that Jonny offers out to him and lets himself be pulled up from the couch and led into Jonny’s bedroom. He makes quick work of stripping down to his boxers before allowing himself to drop down onto Jonny’s bed. 

He settles on his side, watching Jonny move around the room and disappear briefly to the ensuite before finally getting in behind him.

When the hand Jonny places on his hip feels almost tentative, Patrick pushes back closer against Jonny’s chest and easily pulls his arm around to settle more firmly against his waist. The position probably won’t last, but it’s not a bad way to fall asleep at least.

He feels the breath of Jonny’s laughter against the back of his neck. “Glad you’re here,” he says, lips brushing against Patrick’s shoulder.

Patrick closes his eyes, managing to get out a quiet, “Me too,” before he drifts off.

 

He wakes in the morning with his legs tangled up with Jonny’s and arm still slung over his waist, quickly reminding him of where he is. With it being the first time he’s spent the night with Jonny, he doesn’t know how much of risk it is to try to move without waking him up, so he slowly eases his legs away before trying to carefully turn around under Jonny’s arm. Patrick stays still in the moments after, watching Jonny now that he’s facing him, but he barely even moves so Patrick thinks he’s in the clear.

Patrick entertained ideas of going ahead and getting up, but lying here seeing Jonny look younger and softer as he sleeps, he decides that he could stay for a little while longer. He eases Jonny’s arm down lower so that he can curl up against his chest before closing his eyes again.

When Patrick wakes for the second time, he’s alone. There’s a moment where he worries that Jonny might have freaked and bailed, but then he remembers that he’s in Jonny’s apartment, and hears sound coming from the area of the kitchen when he edges closer to the door. He heads for the bathroom first, splashing some water on his face and doing the best he can to deal with his hair.

On the way back out he sees his clothes from last night sitting on top of Jonny’s dresser. Patrick grabs his t-shirt and pulls it on but leaves the jeans there for now. He makes his way out to the kitchen to find Jonny leaning against the counter by the stovetop, still wearing only his boxers, poking at some egg whites.

“Isn’t that a safety hazard?” Patrick asks as he walks in, gesturing to Jonny’s _everything_.

Jonny laughs. “Sorry, do you want me to put a shirt on?”

“I didn’t say that.” Patrick grins, stopping just in front of him. “Morning,” he greets, before leaning up to kiss him.

“Morning,” Jonny murmurs back after he pulls away. “I’m making some eggs, you want a smoothie or anything else?”

Patrick nods, watching the way Jonny’s body reacts as he moves his hands over his chest. “Smoothie sounds good.”

He doesn’t make it down to his stomach before Jonny pulls him in for another kiss, though he’s soon shooed away so that Jonny can focus on the eggs.

A couple minutes later they’re sitting together at the counter as they eat, with the TV on quietly in the background. Unsurprisingly, their conversation turns toward hockey and the game last night. Patrick thinks back to what Jonny said about his dancing at the bar that night and decides to return the favor, admittedly gushing about Jonny’s play and his work around the net that led to Hossa’s goal. “You had a great fucking game, dude. I’m glad I was there to see it.”

Patrick fights back a grin when he sees that Jonny’s cheeks have started to redden. Of all the things he’s ever seen, Jonathan Toews _blushing_ , is easily top five.

Jonny’s eyes dropped away when Patrick was going on about how good he was in that game, but he holds his gaze again as he says, “Me too”.

They don’t say much as they finish off their smoothies, mostly just smiling like idiots whenever they look at each other, but after they’ve put the dishes in the sink Jonny stops in front of Patrick, asking, “Do you have anything going on today?”

“Not really,” Patrick answers with a shrug. He might have made sure he had the day free after checking Jonny’s schedule a couple of days ago and seeing that he had a break before their next game, but Jonny didn’t need to know that.

“You want to hang out for a while?” He asks, tilting his head toward the couch.

“Yeah, you want to play NHL?” Curling up against Jonny on the couch was nice, but Patrick kind of wanted to try to kick his ass and see him get all worked up over it instead. Either way, they were totally going to make out by the end of it.

“Yeah, sure,” Jonny agrees easily. Patrick follows him over to the couch, taking the controller Jonny hands to him. Jonny’s getting the game set up, not even looking at him, when he says, “You know you won’t win as the Sabres, right?”

Patrick can see the smug fucking smile on his face as he continues to look straight ahead. “Oh, it’s on, Toews. It is fucking _on_.”

Patrick actually wasn’t going to pick the Sabres, but then he has to, just to spite Jonny. Jonny’s, of course, good at the game, but Patrick has quick hands and he manages to force it into overtime. They’ve moved closer and closer to each other on the couch as the game goes, and now they’re straight up jostling each other as they battle for the puck on the screen.

And Patrick feels more than justified when he jumps up off the couch after he gets one through as Tyler Ennis to win the game. Though his victory dance is short lived before Jonny tackles him back down onto the couch.

“You suck,” Jonny says as he’s basically laying over top of him.

“There, there, Jonathan,” Patrick manages to get one pat to his face before Jonny swats his hand away. “You tried your best,” he says, smiling up at him.

Jonny is still frowning above him, looking like he’s possibly on the verge of actually becoming grumpy about it or demanding a rematch, so Patrick wiggles his arms free enough to pull Jonny down the rest of the way.

Though Patrick initiated the kiss, Jonny quickly takes control, which Patrick is more than okay with. He could probably get off just like this, with Jonny’s body covering him completely as he grinds down against him.

When Jonny moves his attention down to Patrick’s neck, sucking and licking at the skin there as hips continue to work against Patrick’s, Patrick can’t help but blurt out, “I want you to fuck me.”

Jonny stills against him, not moving at all for a few seconds before leaning back to look at Patrick. “You sure?”

“Yeah, yes,” Patrick answers quickly. He hadn’t meant to say it like that, but now that it’s out there.

“Okay,” Jonny says with the hint of a smile, his hand running down Patrick’s arm to take ahold of Patrick’s as he starts to get up.

“You want to carry me now?” Patrick looks up at him, raising an eyebrow.

Jonny shakes his head, laughing. “Still no.”

Patrick sighs heavily, but he goes when Jonny pulls him to his feet, lets himself be led to Jonny’s room.

 

It’s late afternoon by the time he actually leaves, unable to keep the smile off his face all the way through kissing Jonny goodbye and all the way through the ride home. After waking that morning feeling more than content with the idea of getting to blow Jonny again before he had to go, he doesn’t think he’ll ever get over the look on his face and the little sounds he made as Patrick sunk down on his dick. Even if it never happens again, Patrick isn’t ever going to forget it.

He wants to believe it will happen again though, hopefully too many times for him to actually keep track of. It’s too early to know if he’ll be calling Jonny his boyfriend or something, but he really fucking likes the dude. He would be scared of just how much if he didn’t feel like he was getting the same right back from Jonny.

 

Patrick’s known for most of his life that hockey and ballet schedules can both be pretty crazy, but he didn’t anticipate how hard it would be to try to fit the two together. For the past few weeks, he’s at most been able to fit in a couple of hours here and there with Jonny during the day when they’re both free from practicing, or they have to settle for meeting at one of their places late at night when one or both of them are often too tired to get involved in anything too physical before they fall asleep. And when Patrick does have free time, Jonny has road games. There’s been more than one kind of pathetic night where Patrick’s found himself curled up on his couch wearing one of Jonny’s shirts watching the Hawks play and missing the hell out of him.

For the past week, Jonny’s last three games have been on the road, and they’ve still been texting back and forth about stupid shit, but they haven’t actually spoken for more than a couple of minutes in five days, playing a game of phone tag with each other more than anything else. Patrick’s been having a hard time ignoring all of the reasons why they shouldn’t be doing this that have popped into his head in those past five days.

He’s laid out those reasons to Jess and Jackie, separately, because he didn’t want to worry about them telling him how stupid he was being all at once. Jackie told him exactly that, and Jess was at least sympathetic, but she also felt that he was being too dramatic because, “It’s only been five days, Pat, calm down”. Erica was just too busy to deal with his crap.

It was the first time he actually came close to telling them who Jonny really is, so that they would have a better idea of what he’s dealing with here, but he still didn’t do it. Maybe he would after he talked to Jonny, if he was thinking the same things Patrick was, and wanted to end it.

The other thing he didn’t tell his sisters, and the one they might have already figured out anyway, was how scared he was of that actually happening. As much as he couldn’t help but worry about them not being able to make this work, he worried even more about putting all of that out there and having Jonny agree with him.

He had planned on waiting until Jonny made it back to Chicago, but the more he thinks about it, the more he knows that he doesn’t want Jonny to be there right in front of him, having to look at him, if they break up.

So he decides to call Jonny while he’s still on the road, after a game against the Canucks. He wasn’t around to actually watch the game, but he checks the score on his phone, seeing that the Hawks eked out a 3-2 win in overtime. He almost talks himself out of it, trying to use the win as a reason not to, but he could keep that going either way until the season ended, so he commits to doing it tonight no matter what.

Patrick waits until he knows Jonny should be back in his hotel room before calling, sitting on his couch nervously biting at his lip as he waits for him to answer. There’s an open beer sitting on the coffee table in front of him, but he hasn’t touched it yet. 

“Patrick, hey,” Jonny answers after two quick rings. “I’m glad you called.”

“Hey, Jonny,” he returns before a silence settles between them. Patrick just listens for a minute, to the sound of Jonny breathing, the TV on in the background, however many miles away in Western Canada. “Do you think we should take a break?”

There’s another pause before Jonny says, “What?”

Patrick sighs. “I don’t know, maybe we’re both just too busy for this right now.”

He hears Jonny take a measured breath. “I mean, if that’s what you need, then that’s fine. We can slow this down.” Patrick feels himself nodding along as Jonny agrees to what he’s already run through in his head. “But I don’t want that.”

“You don’t?” He asks, his surprise evident in his voice.

“No. We’re always gonna be busy, Pat. We both have time consuming jobs. But I think we can do this.” Patrick can picture the resolute expression Jonny undoubtedly has on his face. “I want to do this.”

Patrick wants to see that face. “How tired are you?”

“Not too bad, why?”

“Facetime?”

“Yeah, okay.”

Patrick pulls his phone away from his ear to switch over to Facetime, and waits for Jonny. He can’t help but smile wide when he appears, shirtless with disheveled, slightly damp looking hair. “I feel overdressed,” Patrick greets him, giving his best attempt at a leer.

Jonny laughs, teasingly tilting the camera up his body before bringing it closer to his face. “I don’t think your motives for this were very pure.”

Patrick puts on a face of faux innocence. “You mean you don’t want me to take my shirt off?”

“I didn’t say that,” Jonny is quick to respond.

 

By the end of the night, when Patrick’s shirt is wet and dirty at the foot of his bed after being used to wipe the mess off his stomach, and Jonny’s made fun of him for being too lazy to get up and go to the bathroom even though he hasn’t even really cleaned himself up at all yet, he can’t help but feel better about their whole situation. 

It’s not exactly the same as actually getting to be together, but seeing Jonny like this, knowing that he was still able to take him apart like this with so many miles between them, he definitely doesn’t hate it. 

The next couple of months are going to be even busier for the two of them, as Jonny prepares for what will hopefully be a deep playoff run and Patrick’s next show starts up, but Jonny’s willing to do this and that’s good enough reason for Patrick to give it everything he’s got. 

 

Patrick is alone in the dressing room when Jonny finds him, sat in front of a mirror fussing over his curls. Jonny smiles to himself and gives the open door a gentle knock to make his presence known before he enters.

Patrick straightens and turns around to face him, a wide smile of surprise on his face as he greets him, “Hey.”

“Hi,” Jonny smiles back at him. “These are for you,” he says as he approaches Patrick and holds out the bouquet of flowers he carried in.

Patrick stands, looking between Jonny and the flowers. The arrangement had started off small and simple, and he might have gone a little overboard by the end of it, but he really couldn’t help himself when it came to Patrick.

“You didn’t want to save this for after?” Patrick asks as he takes the bouquet, examining the flowers over again before gently placing them down on the counter to wind his arms around Jonny’s waist instead.

“Couldn’t wait,” Jonny says against his neck. He moves one of his hands up Patrick’s back to settle in his hair before he leans back enough to look at him.

Patrick’s mouth quirks up as they look at each other. “Thank you,” he says before he kisses him.

“Of course,” Jonny says when they separate again. “You’re going to be amazing out there.” 

 

When Jonny goes to find his seat, over half of his teammates are already seated all around him. He knew Sharpy had invited all of them, but he really wasn’t expecting this many of them to actually show.

He raises an eyebrow at Shawzy and Saader, who are elbowing each other in their seats, and gets a pat from Seabs as he passes by. Duncs is right beside him, open program in one hand as he types away on his phone with the other. Jonny probably doesn’t even want to know.

He takes the seat between Seabs and Sharpy, with Abby on Sharpy’s other side. When he looks to Abby, she tilts her head over to his left, and he follows her gaze to find three pairs of eyes staring at him.

Patrick’s sisters. Who still have no idea that he’s the Jonny their brother has been dating, but have obviously been able to put two and two together. It’s hard to hide here amongst all his teammates.

He smiles sheepishly and gives them an awkward wave that he’s sure he’ll be made fun of for later.

The oldest sister, Erica, mouths, “Really?”

Jonny nods in return.

He can tell that all three of them want to get up and talk to him, but the lights are dimming and there’s no time, though he’s anticipating a full interrogation at first intermission. His eyes drift over to the side of the stage, where he saw Patrick for the first time, a couple of months ago. As if sensing that Jonny was looking, Pat suddenly steps forward into view, easily picking Jonny out of the crowd. Their eyes meet, and he watches a bright smile take over his face, lighting him up with a feeling he couldn’t push down if he tried. He’s in love with him. And maybe it wasn’t quite love at first sight, but the pull that Jonny felt toward him was damn strong even on that first night. He probably owes his Maman a really nice gift. 

 

The first time Patrick appears on stage, Jonny feels like the breath’s been knocked out of him. He can’t take his eyes off of him, from his strong, quick legs up to his broad shoulders as he moves with an ease and grace that still fascinates him. Patrick is the most beautiful thing Jonny has ever seen.

“Wow, he’s beautiful,” he hears Abby whisper from Sharpy’s other side.

“I’ll second that,” Sharpy agrees.

“Yeah, okay, keep it in your pants, Sharps,” Jonny whispers back, though he can’t help but agree, knowing he’ll be murmuring that same word against Patrick’s skin over and over again later that night.

 


End file.
